Readers speak out on income inequality issue

A recent letter writer asked for a rational explanation of why supporters of wealth inequality think wealth gained from "honest hard work and frugal living" is "inherently evil." I do not think wealth earned in this way is evil. It's deserved. The wealth that stinks is the kind where corporate executives get million dollar or more bonuses while rank-and-file employees get pay cuts or get laid off. I speak from personal experience. I was among employees who received a five percent pay cut while my boss got almost a million-dollar bonus one year. She worked no harder in her job than I did as her assistant. It is Walmart, McDonald's and companies like them whose executives get millions while they pay their non-management employees a minimum wage that's unlivable that gives wealth a bad name. Those employees are living below frugality at the poverty level. These executives didn't earn their wealth single-handedly. Even if they worked hard, their refusal to pay their lower level employees a decent wage while they make millions taints their wealth with greed. Is wealth made in this and similarly unfair ways evil? It may be, and it's certainly unequal.Claire Tiernan, Hayesville###I see a lot of letters decrying the alleged "War on the Rich" that's going on. They talk about how the super rich are attacked for creating their wealth through "honest hard work." The problem is, most of them did not gain their wealth through honest hard work. Some of them inherited huge sums of wealth and hired legal teams to avoid paying their fair share of inheritance taxes. Others gained their wealth from questionable Wall Street derivatives trading. But probably the majority of the super rich have gained most of their wealth from the stock market. Honest hard work? Maybe. If you call hiring the right tax attorneys hard work. I'm for a strong middle class. We're not going to have that when 95 percent of income gains since 2009 have gone to the top 1 percent. It's not a war on the rich; it's a war on income inequality and the wealthy who don't want to pay their taxes.Will Ray, Asheville

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Readers speak out on income inequality issue

A recent letter writer asked for a rational explanation of why supporters of wealth inequality think wealth gained from 'honest hard work and frugal living' is 'inherently evil.' I do not think